The monster cookies you know and love, filled with peanut butter, oats, and M&Ms, all dressed up for Halloween! These Halloween Monster Eye Cookies are chewy, peanut buttery soft, with a bit of chocolatey crunch. Give them an extra spooky look by decorating them with candy eyes and zombie hands.
What are Monster cookies made of?
Monster cookies are peanut butter oatmeal cookies with a variety of add-ons but a traditional monster cookie recipe will start with M&Ms and chocolate chips. Some monster cookie recipes will include things like coconut flakes or pretzels but these cookies start with those four core ingredients.
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, table salt
- Butter: this recipe calls for unsalted butter, but if you want to use salted butter, omit the added salt
- Sugar: use half granulated white sugar and half brown sugar. Brown sugar adds some chewiness to the cookies so you can adjust the ratio of white sugar to brown sugar according to how chewy you like your cookies.
- Peanut butter: make sure to use creamy peanut butter that doesn't have oil on top. Usually, this means staying away from a more natural peanut butter. The oil from natural peanut butter will add wetness to the cookie dough and may cause spreading. You can also use chunky peanut butter, just make sure it's not an oily one.
- Eggs and vanilla extract
- Fillings and decorations: old-fashioned rolled oats, M&Ms, milk chocolate chips, candy eyes and hands. You can customize the fillings and decorations a bit if you'd like, but I would recommend using the suggested amount of oats and a total of 1 ¼ cup chocolate additions.
You should be able to find the candy eyes and zombie hands at most craft stores, like Michaels, JoAnn Fabrics, or Hobby Lobby, if they're not at your local store, or order them from Amazon. There are lots of fun Halloween candy decorations that you can add on as you'd like!
Please see the full list of ingredients and measurements at the bottom of the post.
Variations
You can customize the fillings and decorations a bit if you'd like, but I would recommend using the suggested amount of oats and a total of 1 ¼ cup chocolate candies. One easy variation you can make is to switch out the milk chocolate chips for another flavor:
- peanut butter chips
- white chocolate chips
- butterscotch chips
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together the dry ingredients: baking powder, salt, and flour. This step is important for making sure that the ingredients get evenly incorporated into the cookie dough.
Cream the butter and sugar. Then add the peanut butter and mix again. Finally, mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine. Fold in the oats, M&Ms, and chocolate chips.
Scoop balls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Top the cookies with a few candy eyes or zombie hand and gently press them in. If using the zombie hands, note that they will be large relative to the size of the balls of cookie dough, but as the cookies bake they will spread and fasten around the edge of the hands.
Bake each sheet, one at a time, on the center rack. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for another ten minutes before moving to a wire rack. The cookies will be soft and fragile right out of the oven and will continue to bake on the sheet.
Do I need to chill the cookie dough?
Usually to get a chewy cookie means that you need to chill the cookie dough, but one of the best parts of making these cookies is that there's no chilling time involved and you still get that chewiness!
Why are my monster cookies flat?
It could be that the ingredients are too warm or not warm enough - use room temperature eggs and butter so that the cookie dough mixes together easily. If they're too cold, you may end up overmixing the dough to get the ingredients to combine, and if they're too warm, the cookies can't hold their shape as they bake in the oven.
Two tricks to avoid spreading:
- Place your baking sheet in the freezer while you're making the cookie dough
- After scooping out the cookies, chill them for 15 minutes before baking them in the oven. Be careful to not chill them much longer than that, otherwise they may not spread out as much as you want
Bonus tip
Use a round cookie cutter to shape the cookies as soon as you take them out of the oven. You want to use a cookie cutter larger than the cookie so that you can gently swirl the cookie inside the cutter. Do this right while the cookies are still warm and malleable and the gentle swirling will define the cookie edges, as well as slightly push the edges inward, causing them to thicken - this also makes them a little extra chewy, yum!
Halloween Monster Eye Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup golden brown sugar
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ¾ cup M&Ms
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour so they're evenly mixed.
- Using an electric mixer, either handheld or standing, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about three minutes. Add in the peanut butter and mix until combined. Once mixed, add in the egg and vanilla extract, mix again until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine until there are no more streaks of flour.
- Fold in the oats, M&Ms and chocolate chips using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
- Use a cookie scoop to create balls of dough about one inch big and place on the prepared baking sheet. Top the cookies with a few candy eyes or zombie hand and gently press them in.
- Bake the cookies, one baking sheet at a time, for about 12 minutes, until the bottom of the edges begin to firm up and turn a golden color. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for another 10 minutes out of the oven to continue baking. Then move to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- If using the zombie hands, note that they will be large relative to the size of the balls of cookie dough, but as the cookies bake the cookie will spread and fasten around the edge of the hands.
Nutrition
Please note, Holiday Sweets N Treats isn't a professional nutritionist. Any and all nutritional information shared is an estimate. If you're following a specific diet or counting calories, we suggest you use the nutrition calculator of your choice. Calories can vary depending on the brands and products used.
Jess
Ok, I've seen candy eyes before but never HANDS! 100% saving this for Halloween so I remember to check the craft stores for those (and maybe Bulk Barn, too). Thanks for sharing!
Emma
The hands are my favorite! I found mine at JoAnn fabrics and will update the post with a link for buying them online. Thank you!
Cindy
Yummy!